This invention relates to a hand-held pencil sharpener preferably made of metal and having gripping surfaces which are provided with longitudinal grooves. As a rule, such gripping surfaces run approximately perpendicular to that surface of the pencil sharpener which is fitted with the cutting blade. The user grasps the sharpener with two fingers on the two mutually opposite gripping surfaces and turns the pencil, which is to be sharpened, with the other hand. It is a disadvantage of known pencil sharpeners that the longitudinal grooves of the gripping surfaces are generally very narrow, that is to say their depth and width is very small. Hence, after a certain period of use, these grooves or flutes can clog with dirt, in particular with the graphite or dyestuff arising on sharpening pencils. As a result, this adversely affects the grip and this dirt can be removed from the thin grooves or flutes only with difficulty. Consequently, dirt or graphite dust are as a rule never completely cleaned out of the grooves or flutes. Furthermore, the die which is used for making the pencil sharpener, wears in the course of time. Because of the smallness of the grooves or flutes, even slight wear of the parts of the die, which form the grooves or flutes at the later stage, entails a relatively large change on the latter, that is to say a noticeable reduction of the depth and width of the grooves. Moreover, wear of the die mould changes the shape and hence the appearance of the profile of the sharpener in an adverse manner. In addition, a change of the shape of the profile can have a disadvantageous effect in further working since the reference edges, required for this purpose, of the sharpener, are displaced if the die is altered by wear.